Top 8 victory ambitions still alive for Downs

18 August 2016 - 09:35 By KHANYISO TSHWAKU

At a time when corporates are pulling their sports sponsorships, the PSL struck a pot of gold when MTN renewed its sponsorship of the top eight competition for a further five years. That gives Mamelodi Sundowns a further five opportunities to win a competition that has eluded them for the best part of nine seasons.In the past two seasons Sundowns have been unable to get past the quarterfinal stage.The last time they won the trophy, under Gordon Igesund, it had a different sponsor and under-23 captain Keagan Dolly had yet to map his footballing future.Having won every domestic trophy in the past 18 months, the MTN8 competition is one Dolly is desperate to annex for his club. Sundowns face Supersport United at Loftus Versfeld on Sunday next week."We really want to do well in this competition, especially with the fact that we bombed out of this competition at the first hurdle last season. I think for us it's about trying to turn the tables and make sure we do well against Supersport United first up," Dolly said."We've got the much-needed confidence going into the tournament. We want to dominate in every tournament we take part in. We want to win everything."Kaizer Chiefs captain Siphiwe Tshabalala hopes they will be able to navigate the minefield that will be Cape Town City at the Cape Town Stadium Friday next week.But they have an even tougher task dealing with Bidvest Wits at Bidvest Stadium in their league opener on Tuesday evening.Tshabalala is an injury doubt for both games but hopes the team have learnt from lessons last season, when they were unable to win two finals."We had a great run in both the tournaments we got to the finals in but it was unfortunate that we weren't able to seal the deal."It's better we continue where we left off but know that we should be able to get past the finishing line. We need to be clinical because we create chances but we're not converting them," he said...

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